Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden

The Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden is a 50-acre botanical garden located at 1800 Lakeside Avenue on the North Side of Richmond, Virginia. Known as Oughnum to the Powhatan Native Americans, it was originally a Powhatan hunting ground before it was sold to colonists in 1690 by Nathaniel Bacon. The estate passed through the hands of several families, and the estate was pillaged during the loyalist Benedict Arnold's 1781 raid on Richmond during the American Revolutionary War. In 1884, Major Lewis Ginter purchased the estate, as he was interested in planned, landscaped suburban development. In 1984, a botanical garden opened at the site of the former estate, and it was expanded over the next few decades.